Sep 27, 2012

The Prime Minister of Apartheid Israel just lectured the
United Nations General Assembly! He spent most of his time nagging those
present as if they were school children about Iran. He even insulted their intelligence by showing
them a diagram of a "bomb" and drawing a red line on it (yes
literally with an actual red marker). He
also went about insulting 1.6 billion Muslims and even had the
"chutzpa" to claim Israel is helping people around the world! Those in attendance were less numerically and
qualitatively than those who attended the Iranian president's speech. Netanyahu thus utterly failed to anticipate
the transformed reality around him and acted as if Israel can still run the
show and start wars that others fight for it. He must have not even been briefed
on the Egyptian President's speech. The first democratically elected leader of
Egypt received significant applause when he said that the world community must
stop the hypocrisy and charade of injustice beginning with "the number one"
issue: justice for Palestine. Netanyahu
merely dismissed Mahmoud Abbas's speech with just one sentence "we won't
solve our conflict with libelous speeches at the UN or unilateral declarations
of statehood." [No we solve them via continuing colonization]. He dismissed
all Palestinians and their rights by claiming they need to recognize a "Jewish
state" then they could be allowed a vague but "dimiltarized
state". The very moderate/accommodating
PLO representative Mahmoud Abbas had said that he wanted to gain the overdue legitimacy
for a Palestinian state at the UN and "not delegitimize Israel". But
Israel has done a very good job of delegitimizing itself. Israel in fact should be expelled from the
United Nations because it failed to live up to its commitments to implement UN
resolutions or to be a peace seeking nation. It also fulfils the requirement of
being an apartheid state according to the relevant International Convention. Netanyahu's war mongering and idiotic speech
merely confirmed the obvious conclusion about this rogue state: it is run by
lunatics. So on the bright side, perhaps putting the last few nails in the
coffin of this apartheid system will come from lying racist idiots like Netanyahu. The frustrated reaction from many world
leaders and the shocked reaction by many others to Netanyahu's "lecture"
give us great hope for the future. Indeed the racist mentality and arrogant
criminal actions of this man and other Zionists could be the best accelerator
for the end of apartheid Israel. "The jig maybe up" as they say in
English.

In the USA, Racist (Zionist) subway advertisements get
makeover and challenges

Sep 17, 2012

This is the thirtieth anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila
massacre. We now have documentary
evidence of Israeli and American roles in this preventable massacre of hundreds
of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.** The intensity of private USA-Israel
disputes must have increased in the past 30 years even as the mayhem also
increased (for example one million Iraqis killed by US led sanctions, one
million more by the illegitimate invasion and occupation beginning in 2003). Netanyahu and other Zionists seemed very
frustrated that attempts to bully the US into a war on Iran, like they did on
Iraq, are failing. Disputes that used to
happen behind closed doors are now out in the open. Israel
is not even able to get the US to give them any assurances of protection if they
attack Iran and Iran retaliates with thousands of improved missiles. There is so much dissent now even within
Israeli elites who directly benefit from stirring up conflicts. Thus any decision to create more wars and
suffering seems highly unlikely before the US Presidential elections in
November. Thus fortunes are being spent
by the Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson and other Zionists "banking"
on the Republican Mitt Romney. A media
frenzy led by Zionists will also not succeed unless we get an "October
surprise".

The Zionist attempt to stir a "clash of
civilization" between Christianity and Islam is failing. The angry protests being fomented drew less
than 0.01% of the world Muslim population and most of these demonstrations were
not similar to the attack in Libya that killed the US Ambassador to Libya and
three other Americans. The Zionists in
charge of a significant portion of Western mainstream media tried to exaggerate
and to stoke the fires but they are failing.
The largest demonstration in the Arab world is likely to be the well-disciplined
Hezbollah led mass march and rally in Beirut Monday. Its leader Hassan Nasrallah already stated that
he rejects the violence inflicted on US diplomats in Libya. The Libyan government was forced to admit that
this was a pre-planned attack which likely had other motives (not the offending
amateur video). So many good people are
working behind the scenes to ensure Zionists fail in their attempts to plant
seeds of divisiveness and wars in so many fronts. I actually feel the tide is shifting
dramatically. Perhaps that explains the frustration
and anger of Netanyahu et al.
Unfortunately such apartheid regimes do their most damage in their last
few years. So the past few weeks Israel
intensified its attack on the native Palestinians and issued more orders to
transfer lands to racist Jewish settlers.

Welcome to Palestine latest campaign was an inspiring effort
that we had the privilege and honor to work on. While participants
were not allowed into the West Bank through Jordan, they visited Palestinian
refugee communities in Jordan and showed that Israel is a paranoid apartheid
state. For pictures and text (French and English), see http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article7592

Sep 12, 2012

The struggle against
colonialism, imperialism, and Zionism by definition must be a human struggle
for democracy, freedom, and human rights.
Those who profess such a struggle must not be silent when gangsters
attack in the name of religion, any religion.
Whether it is the Jewish settlers who threw Molotov cocktails on a
Palestinian family, the Christian Phallangist militias in Lebanon who massacred
Palestinian civilians, the Buddhists who looted and burned Rohingya Muslims in
Burma/Myanmar, or the Muslim hooligans who killed four Americans including the
US ambassador in Libya. Those who commit
such horrific acts always have excuses: a film or burning a Quran or cartoons. The
recent "insult" was a "film" of very poor quality by an
Israeli director that pokes fun at Prophet Muhammad. It is indeed despicable that in the USA there
are people like Terry Jones who want to have public burning of the Quran or Samuel
Bacile (Israeli who now lives in the US) who made this stupid film. I lived in the US for 29 years and traveled
in 48 of its 50 states. It is a huge
country and one cannot generalize on 300 million people. For just about all my adult life I struggled
against unjust government policies whether in the US or here in occupied
Palestine. I was unjustly investigated
by the FBI and I also contended with attacks from racist Zionists on my
character. But I also cherished free
speech and worked with the most honorable decent human beings who cared about
others around the world. For every single
American who fomented hatred or committed a despicable act, I always found
several Americans who are decent and caring and acted to help fellow human
beings. Some like Rachel Corrie
sacrificed their lives to defend Palestinians who happen to be Muslims.

If we believe in
democracy and freedom then we must insist on full democracy and freedom which
include the right of foolish individuals to express themselves verbally and
indeed even to speak against religions.
The maxim that no compulsion in religion must be observed and defended
vigorously. Where modern society must draw the line is injury or killing of
others. True religion cannot be insulted
by silly things like movies or cartoons. And which is more offensive: starving Muslims
without aid or a silly film? Which is more offensive and deserving of a
challenge: judaization of Jerusalem or a few stupid cartoons? Is it not the impact on true believers that
matter? Do such films or cartoons weaken
the belief of true followers in any religion?
Do decent human being murder in the name of religion? Would the violent reaction of a few goons instead
weaken belief and also foment strife among humans (something religions tell us
not to do)? Is that why intelligence
operations by Israel or Western governments to foment hatred and "divide
and conquer" can also be accomplished with a few mercenaries? [Remember
when Mubarak secretely sent goons to attack churches in Egypt to blame it on
Muslim Fundamentalists or when Israel bombed western interests in Egypt to
blame it on Arab nationalists]. We do know
that extremists exist in every community and every religion. Should the murderers regardless of their
motives be excused? What religious
belief excuses killing people for what someone else supposedly did? What
religion condones individual action without legal due process?

In 1979, a British comedy
film "Monty Python: Life of Brian" was released mocking the biblical
stories including that of Jesus. Many
Christian friends and relatives found it offensive. I believed and still believe that
"freedom of expression" is a cherished freedom that must be
protected. You cannot draw a line on
this freedom of expression because each person would then have a different
standard of what is acceptable or not.
We know from history how societies quickly descended down the slippery
slope to end up unlivable. We know that
Europe was able to get out of the dark Middle Ages by shedding the controls on
free speech wielded by a religious sect. We know societies who banned television,
music, and art. We know the fate of
societies that tried to erase their past by destroying shrines, monuments, and
other archeological and historical treasures. Religion gives meaning and
comfort to billions of people around the world.
If we want to defend religion in meaningful way, we should start by
unequivocally condemning those who murder in its name. Shouldn’t killers be brought to justice
whether they claim Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism as their
"religion"?

Decent human beings of
all religions must not remain silent. Societies
must educate children that they can both cherish their own beliefs while
aggressively defending the right of others to free speech and expression no
matter how silly, satiric, or offensive such speech might be. We cannot succumb to the hatred generated by
people like Sam Bacile, Terry Jones, John Hagee, many Zionists, or the killers
in Benghazi. History cautions us of
dramatic consequences of such hatred.
Ultimately, all humanity is at stake.

---------------------

We lost a dear friend and colleague, Dr. Gabi Baramki. May we remember him by acting as he did for
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on the apartheid state of Israel. Boycott from Within activists Ronnie
Barkan and Renen Raz pay tribute to Gabi Baramki by calling on the
Israeli museum occupying the Baramki House to return the pillaged house to the
Baramki family. The Baramki House: The Absent / Present. http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1988

The unrest, demonstrations, strikes and other actions
continued in the occupied West Bank.
People have openly called for ending the Oslo agreements and its
appendages like the Paris economic agreement.
They have also called for reviving the moribund PLO with elections and
going back to being a liberation movement.
But I think a lot more pressure will build before the
"leaders" take more than cosmetic steps. After all, economy cannot survive under
occupation/apartheid.

Sep 7, 2012

This week, a Christian monastery near Jerusalem was vandalized
by Israeli with one of the graffiti statements saying ‘Jesus is a monkey.’ A
Bahrain kangaroo court upheld "convictions" of pro-democracy and
human rights defenders including life terms for founder of a human rights
center. The US is not acting on its own human rights laws and continues close
working relationship with the ruling family which includes having a very big
military base in Bahrain. 60 people
seeking refuge in Turkey died by drowning, many of them were Palestinians.
Independent sources confirm that at least two million Syrians were directly affected
by the fighting in Syria, fighting that increasingly reminds us of civil war in
Lebanon (done by proxies). Israel continued to engage in extrajudicial
executions killing three young men with a missile in Gaza just two days ago. A
school and community service center are threatened with demolition in Izbet
Tabib (gathering Saturday there at noon for those interested in helping). And the list goes on.

As prices of food and basic commodities including gasoline
rise, Palestinians under occupation feel the squeeze. Poverty continues to rise and with it anger. In every town in the occupied areas there
were loud demonstrations closing streets to traffic and demanding change. In one case more rational young people talked
a few extremists to stop vandalizing and even joined hands to clean the street
of rubble and put out burning tires. Like
all spontaneous uprisings, young people lead but many times their organization
or agenda is not clear or not present.
Like in other situations, there are established political forces which
try to co-opt, misdirect or destroy the nascent popular movement. Some honest and decent people try to protect
it.

It is not clear where all this is heading. The economic
misery here is caused by a combination of factors. First and foremost is the Israeli occupation
and colonization that was structured to build a Jewish state in Palestine while
simultaneously destroying Palestinian lives.
Thus Palestinian agriculture, tourism, industry, education etc were methodically
targeted and systematically dismantled in the past 90 years (started with
Herbert Samuels, the Zionist high commissioner of Palestine under British
rule). But this Zionist plan could not
have been executed without help: from western powers and from collusionist Arab
leaders. Any serious student of history
will realize quickly the extent of the conspiracy to liquidate Palestine and
Palestinian identity and replace it with the manufactured, fake, and oxymoronic
"Jewish nationalism". The
monstrous product called the state of Israel is directly responsible for the
fact that we have today millions of Palestinian refugees and we have had
several very destructive wars. This
product is also the instigator of regional conflicts and wars (e.g. on Iraq and
now pushing for a war on Iran). Israel
is increasingly identified as a major source of instability, a foreign body
implanted in the middle of the Arab world in many ways sustained artificially
by Western support. It is increasingly obvious that it is not even "good
for the Jews".

With the PLO's 10 point program in 1974 then the fateful
Egypt-Israel peace treaty of the late 1970s, the Zionist movement felt
invincible. This directly resulted in
Israeli ventures to crush the resistance by invading Lebanon in 1982. It also led to the disastrous Oslo
accords. Creating a Palestinian
authority (the PA) without an intention to end occupation, colonization, and
apartheid was a brilliant Israeli move (initially thought of in 1968 but only
implemented in 1993-1995). The PA's
mission was to make occupation even more profitable and less troublesome to the
state of Israel. Instead of 4000 Israeli
soldiers in the Bethlehem area, we have 4000 Palestinian security personnel to
ensure no friction. The accords also resulted in the illusion of a "peace
process" underway to create "two-states" (something that was
never and will never be in the cards).
20 years later, 650,000 settlers now live in the West Bank. Judaization of Jerusalem is accelerating.
Israel continues destroying Palestinian lives in the Galilee, in the Negev, in
Jerusalem, in Gaza and in the other Bantustans.

Israel offers economic pacification with a twist to its silent
partners in these crimes. The Paris
protocols ensured Israel's hegemony over natural resources, that Israel
collects taxes from Palestinians, and that the Palestinian economy is merely a
captive market for Israeli goods and services.
In return for this, Israel will not hinder but will facilitate
"humanitarian assistance" coming from Western and Eastern
countries. The Palestinian economy
transformation to a "donor dependent" economy was thus
accelerated. Some Palestinian elites got
very wealthy (look at villas and SUVs in the Ramallah area just to see the
extent of this).

An artificial system was created to ensure a segment of the Palestinian
population is comfortable enough to suppress any potential uprising against the
occupation. This segment to protect the status quo would, as the Israeli
argument goes, find it difficult or impossible to abandon privilege for the
sake of larger national goals such as restorative justice. Refugees and Jerusalem and liberation etc
become old slogans put on the shelf or dumped in the trash bin so that the mahogany
desks can be decorated with medals of "pragmatism", stamped by
western donors. I predicted several
years ago that this system was unsustainable.
If nothing else, it is hard to keep enough beneficiaries of the 11.5
million Palestinians around the world to sustain it. Even Israeli elites have started to question
the ability of the PA to keep the lid on the restless, angry, and frustrated
disenfranchized Palestinian population.
The Hamas-Fatah "division" is not the cause of the current sad
state of affairs in Palestine. It is a
mere (mild) symptom of the deterioration in our political institutions over the
past few decades.

The Palestinian authority called for municipal elections for
next month (October). Municipal
elections are already two years behind schedule. A presidential commission and local branches
of national factions policized what otherwise should be a civil service matter. Here in my town of Beit Sahour, the mayor who
is from Fatah decided to run again. The
last time the main challenge was from left-leaning parties. Hamas is hounded
here (as are secular forces hounded in Gaza) so is not running. The left parties are divided and if united
could possibly win. But something
interesting is now happening. The youth
gathered to declare that they are neither with Fatah nor the left parties and
do not like the way things have been running.
A facebook page gathered
thousands and very interesting discussions ensued. Youth questioned why members
of the city council from the left were not willing or able to challenge decisions
made unilaterally by the mayor. Youth want a municipal council that is truly
representative, effective, and transparent.
They reject actions of current political factions and reject tribal/familial
patterns of operations. They believe change
for the better can copme from their own actions. I noticed a shift among many members of our
society towards this mode of thinking and working. I noted even those who are members or supporters
of political factions beginning to have internal discussions to reassess. Sometimes these became heated discussions as
I am told by some sympathetic insiders.

I think Palestinian society overall is dynamic, vibrant,
educated and flexible. This makes me
optimistic that despite the many obstacles and problems we encountered
(especially the "Oslo" disaster), we can regain our footing. When all is said and done I am not betting on
political leaders, I am betting on our people.
Our "history of hope and empowerment"* certainly makes this a
sure bet.

*"Popular Resistance in Palestine: a history of hope
and empowerment" published in 2010 very briefly goes over 130 years of
confronting challenges of Zionism, Western and Arab Collusion.

Interesting article by Ali Abunimah

"Ramming through AIPAC’s desires – despite an apparent
no vote – was a neat summary of how US elites make decisions when it comes to
Israel. Both parties are in a bidding war to appease Israel’s most extreme
supporters at home and abroad. If this means riding roughshod over their own
members, the American public, world opinion, international law and the basic
rights of the Palestinian people, then so be it."

About Me

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem University (BU) and directs the BU's cytogenetics laboratory and the Palestine Museum of Natural History and Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability in occupied Palestine. He also taught at Birzeit and Al-Quds Universities. He is author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle", “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment”, "Mammals of the Holy Land", and "The Bats of Egypt." He formerly served on the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in Beit Sahour and Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Society at Aida Refugee Camp.